In the preparations for the German invasion of the Soviet Union, 
special units known as the Einsatzgruppen were formed with the 
special charge of executing Jews, communists, and members of 
other targeted groups. Drawn from the SS, the SD, and the 
Gestapo, members of the Einsatzgruppen had the reputation of 
being the most cold-blooded of all Nazi killers.

    After the war, the German government investigated 1,770 former 
Einsatzgruppen members and brought 136 of these men to trial. 
Helmut Langerbein has systematically examined the trial evidence 
in search of characteristics shared by these mass murderers. Using 
a much broader data base than earlier studies, Langerbein 
identifies a number of factors that could explain their actions, 
illustrating each with a particular person or group of officers.

    Particular traits and degrees of anti-Semitism, self-
aggrandizement, sense of duty to obey superiors, and peer 
pressure may each have played a role in the cases of individual 
officers, but Langerbein concludes that the only characteristic 
common to all his subjects was the war itself. It was above all the 
extraordinary circumstances and brutality of the Eastern Front that 
shaped their behavior.

    Given the extent of its data, its detailed analysis, and its careful 
conclusions, Hitler’s Death Squads will push historians and 
psychologists toward a reappraisal of the Nazi killing machine, the 
behavior of the men behind the battle lines, and the overwhelming 
power of circumstance.

    Langerbein’s chilling conclusions, which challenge the leading 
theories explaining why people commit mass murder, will be of 
intense interest to those concerned with World War II, the 
Holocaust, Eastern Europe, warfare, war crimes, genocide, and 
human behavior.

_________________________________________________________

HELMUT LANGERBEIN is an assistant professor of history at the 
University of Texas in Brownsville.


Number Twenty-five: Eastern European Studies


What people are saying about this book

“The grisly and appalling story of the Einsatzgruppen has 
attracted much scholarly attention, and Langerbein's work adds 
notably to our understanding of that story. He has tapped 
German court records that previous scholars have not, and he 
offers in many regards a more satisfactory overall explanation of the
individual characters and motivations of the members of those murder
squads. He impressively explores a multiplicity of motives, always
cautious not to make more of the sometimes frustratingly incomplete
evidence than it will bear. In this and in many other regards
Langerbein offers his readers much new information—and much to
ponder.”—Albert S. Lindemann, University of California at Santa
Barbara